Feb. 12, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State women's tennis team (4-2), will head to Milwaukee, Wis., to compete against Green Bay on Saturday, Feb. 13, and Marquette on Sunday, Feb 14. The women's tennis team has two sets of doubles teams who have built a 5-1 record so far this season and will be looked at to continue the claim of the doubles point in this weekend's match-ups.
"We've had good matches so far that were pretty tight," head coach Chris Hoover said. "I'm expecting us to do well against Green Bay and get us warmed up to play Marquette on Sunday. I'm hoping for another close tight match on Sunday. Julia and Franziska are a really good doubles pair. They need to play better and faster because they start off too slow but they come back on people. I would like to get out of that habit so they can become a great doubles teams this spring. Our doubles up and down the line are pretty solid so it should make for an exciting weekend."
Illinois State is coming off of a 6-1 victory against Sam Houston State. Julia Zubkova and Franziska Steinhardt extended their winning streak to four at the No. 1 doubles position along with Redbird duo Natalia Lech and Aniko Kiss at the No. 2 doubles position.
In singles, sophomore Hannah Esker has won three-straight singles matches at the No. 6 position. Her overall record so far this season is 4-2.
"Hannah always plays tough," Hoover said. "She's pretty hard to beat. I'm expecting her and everyone else to have good tight matches. If we go 4-3 all weekend, that would be great. Green Bay and Marquette are good teams and good competitors."
The Redbirds open play Saturday, Feb. 13, at 10 a.m. at Helfaer Tennis Stadium located on the Marquette campus.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
###
